Earlier today I mentioned to an online, non-writer friend that I have a website that her daughter might be interested in checking out. She emailed me back to tell me that her daughter loves to read and she was sure to enjoy my site and she was excited about it. However, she did ask me if the books I recommended were “safe for a twelve year old”. She assured me that she is not a prude, but she’s found what she considers “soft porn” in a lot of YA and she just doesn’t find that appropriate for a twelve year old. I was really glad she asked the question because this blog has been geared towards grown-ups from its start, but now it is on my website which I am clearly marketing towards teens. This was a fair question that I needed to consider, but hadn’t really thought of before.
My answer to her was that I think sex plays an important part in a lot of YA and therefore I am certainly not going to refrain from posting about books that I love just because they contain sex. That said, I have yet to fall in love with a book containing gratuitous or shock-value sex scenes in them, and I’ve read some. As you all know, I only write about books I really like so those books aren’t going to end up on my website anyway. I explained to her about MG and YA labels also and how it would be safe for her daughter to read any of the MG that I talk about, and she seemed happy with my answer.
This got me thinking, and any of you who are between about 35-45, or are parents of people that age, will remember Judy Blume and the FOREVER scandal. I think that my mother handled that better than anyone else’s. When my friend, Shannon, brought FOREVER to school in the fourth grade and we all gathered around reading the sexy bits, we were caught and our parents were called (or a note or something). What did my brilliant mother do? She went out and bought the book, read it herself, and then handed it to me and told me that I couldn’t just read the sexy bits, I had to read the whole thing straight through, just like any other book. Which I eagerly did. And I loved that book, but believe me, taking away the taboo like that certainly put a damper on the whole thing! The thing I remember most now, as I’m older and can reflect back on it, is how OLD I thought Michael and Katharine were. They were seniors in high school! Practically grown-ups. So what if they had sex?
My new age mum wasn’t so forthcoming with WIFEY which I will admit now, I read anyway. She’ll probably tell you she knew that, but I don’t think she did! Still, books were never hidden in our house, so I could read whatever was around.
To wrap up this post, I’ll just say that in future posts, I may make a note if a book contains sex. That way the kids will know which ones they want to read. 🙂 I mean, the parents can read them first to make sure they’re comfortable with the books.
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